


Factual Mythology

by dreamers_wonderland



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: After The Fact Narration, F/M, First Person Narrative, Gen, M/M, Multi, Second person POV, Thar be Mermaids, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 14:47:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17024670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamers_wonderland/pseuds/dreamers_wonderland
Summary: Would anyone have believed him before if he said he saw a mermaid? He doubted it, honestly. That day in the Science Division was just the right place, the right time, and the perfect accident.A broken mermaid statue and a very willing ear.





	1. The First Tale

**Author's Note:**

> OH boy this is a cross post of a rewrite that I am still in love with and will defend to the death.

Allen stared at the floor, long hair draped over his shoulder, box held tight in his grip, eyes trained on the shattered remains of a painted mermaid statue. The tail was blue, the torso bare, and the arms stretched out over their head. Allen set the box down gingerly – one filled with a variety of unlabeled bottles from the science department – and crouched to pick up the pieces.

“Allen?” Lenalee’s voice was muffled and gaining volume. He glanced up as she rounded a corner. “There you are,” she sighed. “Thought you’d gotten lost in the storage.” She followed his gaze as it returned to the ground. “Did you break something?” she asked. She knelt to help him pick up the pieces.

“On accident but yeah,” he said with a heavy sigh. He plucked the extended arms and head from the ground, twirling it between his fingers. “Did I ever tell you about the time my Master and I found a mermaid?” his voice was casual, as if he were talking about anything else but a mythological creature and his Master.

Lenalee choked when the question finally hit her. “Excuse me?” she asked. She stared at him, watching him look at her in confusion, then realization, then embarrassment.

“A mermaid!” he stuttered out. He sat back on his haunches and held up the piece in his hand. “Like the stories!”

Lenalee leaned forward, face dangerously close to his, eyebrows scrunched together as she scrutinized the younger boy. “A mermaid?” she asked. Allen nodded. “You two found a mermaid and you never told me this?” she whispered. Allen laughed nervous. Lenalee lifted a hand and gently pinched his cheek. “Well? Are you gonna tell me the story now?”

“I will, I will!” he cried. “Just let me go! Let me gooooo!” Lenalee complied and sat back heavily on the floor, arms crossed and cheeks puffed in frustration. Allen sat back as well, carefully setting the piece with the small pile on the floor. “It wasn’t like I didn’t tell you on purpose,” he confessed, “I just forgot about the ordeal. It…” He trailed off as his eyes gained a distant look.

_“It didn’t end very well…_

_I remember we were on a ship. It was supposed to be sailing west from France, directly to England, but when we didn’t uh…reach the coast within a few hours, Master stomped up onto the deck to share a few words with the captain. I followed him, mildly afraid of being left unattended in the galley with men I had just cheated out of money and mildly afraid that Master would piss the captain off enough for him to dump us on the first dock they saw._

_It was raining, and cloudy, and honestly, we could have been on the brink of reaching England by the state of the sky. Master was at the bow of the ship, chewing on his cigarette and swearing up a storm. My attention was on a group of fishermen to my right. They were struggling to lift their nets. I thought maybe I could help, to gain some kind of favor with the crew. After all, if we were going to be stuck on the ship any longer, I was going to have to steal more of their money by cheating at cards.”_

“You’re mildly bitter about the whole thing with General Cross, aren’t you?” Lenalee asked.

Allen stared at her with little emotion. “You have no idea.”

The girl laughed. Allen leaned back on his hands and stared at the ceiling far above him.

_“We almost had the nets up when Master came over. He was swearing in French. I remember because I didn’t understand a word he was saying at the time. He spat his cigarette over the bulwark towards the writhing nets of fish and watched them struggle. He saw something, he had to have, because he pushed his way towards the middle of the net and grabbed a handful himself. He shouted at the men to heave, and all at once we stumbled back with the net. It exploded on the deck, fish flying everywhere._

_You were beneath them, dazed at the sudden change from water to air, chest flat against the deck, arms trapped beneath your body. As you processed the feel of the wood on your skin, you shoved away from the deck and tried to launch yourself overboard. Your tail thwacked the floor with enough force to make it shake._

_I was shocked, as were most of the men, but someone had the thought to harpoon your tail to the floor. You wailed in pain. There was a smack and I jumped as if it was me that was hit. Instead, the man that had speared you crumbled. Master stepped over his fallen form and placed a hand against your bare back. He wasn’t expecting the sharp spines that shot through his palm from the curve of your back, nor a face full of nails as you swiped your clawed hands at him. He caught your wrists in his free hand, jaw clenched but face devoid of the pain he must have been feeling._

_“We aren’t going to harm you,” he said. It was then that I noticed his fingers very loosely encircled your wrists. He wasn’t applying pressure. He wasn’t hurting you at all.”_

“Looking back, I can honestly see how everyone in the Order can think he’s an amazing man,” Allen sighed. He rubbed the back of his neck as he met Lenalee’s dazed eyes. “That was the first and only time I had ever seen Master so gentle to someone in front of other people.”

“What happened next?” Lenalee asked softly. She scooted closer across the floor, her hips landing between Allen’s heavy boots.

Allen smiled.

_“You were panting, obviously scared, squinted eyes flicking nervously between Master and the men behind him. I was staring. Your eyes were interesting. They had been completely black, from corner to corner, when you had first opened them. Now, I could see the whites of them, and the color of your irises in the dim daylight. The spines on your back slowly lowered save for the few near the junction of your spine and tail, where Master’s bleeding hand lay. You twisted to look for the reason why they wouldn’t retract._

_Master pulled his hand free. His jaw clenched tighter but, still, his face was free of pain. It was soft, in fact, and, dare I say, caring. The look he gave a patron whose name he would remember even long after we’d left their homes, and he, their beds. Your back completely relaxed. I stared but I couldn’t see where the spines originated from._

_“We aren’t going to harm you,” Master repeated. You looked back up at him. This time, your hands relaxed into softly curved fingers from sharp and jagged claws. His fingers tightened around your wrists as your arms sagged with defeat. He motioned to the harpoon with his dripping hand. “May I?”_

_Your tail flicked and pain shot across your face. Your back rippled with hundreds of sharp spines. I thought of the blown up fish in the wharf markets when I saw them. They looked just like those. Master lifted his hand away from the harpoon. “If I don’t remove it, you’ll keep bleeding,” he pointed out._

_The panic was rising in you. Your chest was heaving, your eyes growing wide. You lunged from the bulwark at Master as though to throw him off balance with your weight. His arm locked around your waist instead, holding you flush against his body. He raised your arms high above your head to keep you from hitting him in the face._

_“Allen,” he snapped. There was finally emotion on his face: annoyance. “Get the harpoon.”_

_“But—”_

_“Get. The. Harpoon.” His face turned towards mine with every word. If he hadn’t been preoccupied with your thrashing and screaming, he might have booted me towards the harpoon. Then again, there wouldn’t be a harpoon if you weren’t on the deck. I stepped towards it, staring at the fin it had pierced through. Scales had come free from your tail with your erratic movements and what I thought was blood pooled under the pinned flesh. I reached down to grip the shaft as close to the blade as possible and hesitantly touched your moving tail._

_You froze at that, my touch. You were still breathing hard, angry and glaring eyes locked on Cross’s neutral face, but you had stopped moving. I pressed my hand against your tail and yanked the harpoon from the deck._

_It came free._

_“Don’ you **dare**  le’ ‘ha’ go, Marian,” the captain spat. He stalked towards the two of you. Your tail curled around Master’s boots. His arm tightened around your waist._

_“Please.” It was the first word you spoke, no, you begged. You tugged your hands against Master’s grip, shaking your head. Your eyes were welling with tears. “We don’t come back from them,” you whispered. “We don’t escape them.” Your voice was laden with an accent I had never heard before._

_“Marian,” the captain shouted. He was next to me now, hands reaching for the harpoon I held. I scrambled across the deck to the other side and threw the weapon into the choppy sea._

_You watched me do it._

_Master hummed. His arm relaxed as he brought your hands to his chest. There was a sly smile on his face, the one I had already come to fear in the short time I had been around him. “I paid you for passage to England,” he pointed out. Master glanced at the open waters. “This isn’t England.”_

_“We’re makin’ a de’our,” the captain said. His voice was hesitant now._

_“On my dime,” Master snapped._

_I refrained from correcting him. It was my money, after all._

_Master lifted your hands and pressed an open mouth kiss against your fingers. “So, I think this ‘detour’ warrants the grandest prize to be fished from the sea,” he said. He was staring the captain down, silently challenging him to a fight that the captain could never win. When the captain didn’t answer, Master crouched and slipped his arm under your tail, scooping you into his arms. He released your hands. They fell against your damp chest. Your wet hair was trapped against your shoulders. “Then we’re at an agreement,” Master said. He stood and walked towards the stairs, motioning for me to go ahead of him. I scrambled down the steps to the cabins below._

_“We’ll be disembarking at the first port,” Master stated. There was a silent dare in his words._

_We **would**  be getting off the ship at first port.”_

Lenalee stared as the last of Allen’s words faded away. “You actually found a mermaid,” she whispered.

Allen grinned. “Yeah. We actually found a mermaid.”


	2. The Second Tale

Lenalee fell back onto the floor, kicking her feet into the air. One of her shoes dangled dangerously from her toes. “So you found a mermaid,” she repeated to the ceiling. She heard Allen move around until he was lying shoulder to shoulder with her, staring up at the dome of the room they occupied. Beyond the skyscrapers of boxes around them was the chipped and faded night sky someone had painted on the stone many years ago. The stars were mostly in silver, with various stars glittering in red and golds and blues. Allen would have believed that the dome was gem encrusted. He would hate to leave all that behind with the move.

“Does the sky really look like that out there?” Lenalee asked quietly. Allen glanced over at her. “I’ve never paid attention,” she confessed, “To the night sky. I’ve always been afraid of where I’m gonna land.” Her voice was soft and distant.

Allen returned his gaze to the ceiling. “It is,” he answered.

_“In the dead of night, out on the water, the ocean and the sky look like they’re one and the same._

_I remember when we left the ship. It took almost a week to arrive at the first port, and Master wasn’t kidding when he said we were leaving with you at the first opportunity. The port was abandoned in a fishing village. Rotting fishing boats were half sunk on the shore and frayed ropes were hanging from planks. The captain shouted obscenities after Master and I as we left the ship. Our suitcases and jackets were heavy with money I had swindled from the crew. I carried them while Master carried you in his arms. You had your arms wrapped around his neck as he walked, staring back at the open water behind him._

_“We won’t be able to let you go anywhere near here,” Master said in your ear. “They’ll stick around, wait to find you. Is that alright?”_

_“What are we gonna do?” I asked._

_“Stay here,” he answered. He wasn’t nearly as nice in his response to me. You glanced up at him._

_“No one is here,” you whispered. You cleared your throat. “No one has been here in a very long time.”_

_“So you know English,” Master pointed out. The look you gave him was annoyed this time. I smothered a snort._

_“I know many things,” you responded. Your eyes left his face and focused on your tail. What little was exposed was drying and the scales had lost their rainbow sheen with the disappearance of the sun. The rest was covered with a tarp. “I know it gets cold here after dusk,” you said slowly._

_Master snapped his fingers at me, motioning to the first intact home nearby. It might have been the only one still standing in the town; most were a mess of fallen walls and rotting wood and everything smelled like salt water. I stepped over a neatly sawed log lying on its side in front of the house like a bench and pressed my shoulder against the door. It was locked. I tried again as I heard Master walking up the trail behind me. He grunted an order to move and I jumped aside._

_His boot crashed against the door. It flew inward, rotting wood splintering. Irritation must have been eating away at him. It could have been from the cold, from the wet, from me, or from the fact that he had you wrapped in a drenched tarp in his arms; so, most likely, from the cold and the wet. I repressed a sigh. I was going to get the brunt of that annoyance the longer we stayed here._

_Master’s vision had always been incredibly sharp. He could see through the darkness of the shack and set you gingerly on a water stained mattress. You patted the material with your hands. “You two need fire,” you pointed out, “if we are to stay here through the night.”_

_“Us two?” Master inquired. He struck a match against the dry side of his boot to light a crumpled cigarette. It barely touched the walls of the shack. It was only one room._

_You nodded and tilted your head to the side. Your uncut hair fell over your shoulders. It was dry and brittle from your time in the water. “Home is much, much colder than it has ever been on land,” you said. You shrugged and straightened and stared at the wall next to you. “Or so I’ve been told.” You leaned across the mattress to brush your hand against the wood. It must have been soft from exposure. You rubbed your fingers together._

_“Boy.” Master’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up at him. He was watching you. “Go find some candles in the rubble. And clothes.” He turned his head. I could barely see the white of his mask. “Any kind.”_

_The biting cold of the next breeze off the sea prompted me to run.”_

Allen sighed. Lenalee was leaning against his shoulder, staring up at the gems that sparkled in the stone ceiling high above. “What happened next?” she asked.

There was a loud sigh. Bright red hair fell over both Allen’s and Lenalee’s eyes as Lavi fell back, pushing his head between theirs. He stared blankly at the ceiling. “So,” he sang, “What’re we talkin’ about.”

“Mermaids,” Lenalee answered flippantly. “Allen and General Cross found one.”

“Oh yeah cause that’s normal,” Lavi responded. He lifted a small hand with a frustrated sound. “I mean, I’m a damn child so. Mermaids. Totally normal.” Lenalee suppressed a giggle. “Glad they fixed your meowing, Lena,” Lavi grumbled.

“There’s bound to be a cure in one of these boxes,” Allen commented.

Lavi grumbled again. “So. Mermaid, huh?”

“What happened next, Allen?” Lenalee prompted.

Allen laced his fingers across his stomach.  _“I ran through the village, looking for anything I could that could help. I found a blanket and loaded that with every piece of clothing and candle I could find or that I could carry. The village wasn’t large, and it was so quiet that I could hear you and Master talking clear as day._

_“You called him boy,” you said, contempt clear in your voice. “He has a name. It’s Allen.”_

_“He’s my apprentice. I’ll call him whatever I want to call him,” Master replied. He sounded tired. “What do we call you, anyway?” he asked. There was a series of clicks, louder and more solid than those that a bat would make. Then silence. “If I wanted to travel with a clown, I would have found one by now,” came Master’s sharp retort._

_Your laughter that followed was sarcastic and rude. You gave him your name though. “If you wanted it in a way you understood, you should have clarified,” you said._

_“You’re articulate, for a fish,” he snapped._

_“You’re touchy, for a man,” you replied. There was an irritated growl. “You all but kidnapped me and expect me to be kind?”_

_“I saved your life.”_

_“You forced me to trade one death for another.”_

_“Because being out here, on land, with someone that will make sure that you’re safe, is so much worse than being sold to a circus or slaughtered for the highest bidder.”_

_I pulled my haul through the door before the argument could escalate. You looked up then. Your hands were threading through your hair, pulling broken pieces away in handfuls. Master was grinding down on the filter of his cigarette. “I have candles,” I said, “and clothes. As much as I could find.”_

_Master yanked the first thing he could from the pile and threw it at you. “Put this on,” he said with a huff. You caught it as it hit you in the face. It was a shirt, one almost too big for you, but you pulled it on anyway. You peeled the tarp from your tail and stared at it. It was almost completely dry._

_“If we move,” you said, “I’ll need something more.” Master glared at you either in frustration, irritation, or exhaustion. Or all three. “Stories say that mermaids gain legs when they come to land. That’s how humans came to be.”_

_Master snorted as he lit a handful of candles. He warmed the bottoms and stuck them fast against the small dining table in the room. He made quick work of all the candles I had collected. “That’s the story of humans, is it?” he asked._

_You arched an eyebrow at him. Your hands were still pulling handfuls of broken strands of hair from your head. “Do you have a better one?”_

_“I have a more **plausible**  one,” he grumbled. He turned to me and regarded the rest of the things I had gathered. With a sigh, he fell onto the bed next to you. “C’mere, brat,” he said. You made a rude noise and glared at him. I pulled everything I had towards the bed. “If it gets as cold as they say, we’ll need to share warmth.”_

_“You’ll need to share warmth,” you pointed out. You pushed yourself back against the wall, drawing your tail up to your chest. “I’ll be alright.”_

_Master spat his crushed filter onto a dry plank of the shack. “Right,” he commented dryly. I took the empty space between them and pulled the fabrics onto the mattress.”_

Allen heaved a sigh. “It was a very long night,” he grumbled.

Lavi had the nerve to laugh. It was high pitched and childish, but it was still a mocking laugh. “Oh I bet,” he said. “Sounds like the fish was a real treat.”

“Mermaid!” Lenalee protest. She rolled over to give the child sized Bookman a dirty look. “Be nice, okay!”

He stuck his tongue out at her. Allen sighed again.


	3. The Third Tale

Lenalee’s voice faded amongst the towering boxes around her, Lavi, and Allen as she explained the previous segment of the story to Lavi. He had claimed he was lost and practically begged her to explain everything to him. It was hard to resist the face of a child.

Now, the three of them were sprawled across the floor, heads together, staring at the expanse of faux stars high above their heads. Lavi pointed out the inaccuracy of the display. Allen made a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat. There was a rustle near the entrance of the labs that drew the trio’s attention. Reever poked his head around the corner, staring in dismay at the amount of boxes left to move. He then looked down at the Exorcists on the floor.

“What are you doing?” he asked, voice rough and deep with exhaustion.

Lavi kicked his legs up and rocked into a sitting position. “Tellin’ stories. Sit and take a load off, Reever!”

Lenalee waved her hands at the scientist as he padded to one of the few chairs left in the whole lab. “Allen’s telling us a story about his time with General Cross.”

“Oh? And which one is that?” Reever asked. He was very obviously amused.

“When we found a mermaid,” Allen explained. From the sounds of it, he was getting tired of repeating himself. He frowned, however, when a pained look – not a shocked one – crossed Reever’s face. The man looked down at the shattered remains of the statue on the floor.

“That story, huh?”

“Do you know it already?” Allen asked. He rolled onto his stomach.

Reever turned the chair and sank into it backwards. “Not the whole thing. Just that,” he trailed off and shook his head. “Just the ending. It was almost the whole time you were with him, wasn’t it? Four years or so?”

Allen hummed in the affirmative, nodding his head. “Um, they were still with him in India but…” The sentence hung unfinished in the air. Reever released a slow sigh. Lavi and Lenalee looked between the two. They were lost. Reever grinned.

“Well, I haven’t heard the fun bits,” Reever declared. He edged the chair closer to the trio. Once he reached them, he rested his arms and head on the back rest. “So, if you’re tellin’ the story, don’t let me interrupt.” Lavi fell back with a small puff of air.

Allen rolled back onto his back and stared at a glittering blue gem in the ceiling.  _“We were in that village for a week. Every sunset, we’d look out and see the schooner still anchored in the water. At dawn, we would look, and still, it was there. It started to eat away at Master’s patience. It had long devoured yours._

_You shakily paced on bare feet across the damp wooden planks of the shack, the skirts of a peasant’s dress swishing around your ankles. It was awkward on your body, as awkward as the worn pants and cotton shirt you had worn the day before, but after a lifetime of never wearing anything, you would never find comfort in the clothing of humans. You had said so yourself the first morning in a shirt. I watched you pace. Your body trembled from the new movement._

_“Mr. Marian.” Your voice broke the silence so suddenly, I jumped. You turned to Master with a frustrated look, the ragged ends of your hair swishing around your shoulders. Two days before, you had finally caved and asked me to cut it for you. The brittle strands gave easily to a dull knife._

_Master looked up at you at the sound of his name. He tapped the end of his last cigarette, sending ashes scattering to the floor._

_“You got us here,” you said. You crossed the shack in two steps and crumbled to your knees in front of his boots. The motion looked painful. “How do we get out?” you asked._

_“So, you’re speaking to me like an equal now?” he asked, very bored and very tired. His complaints of sleeping on the floor had not gone unnoticed by you or myself. You refrained from rebutting, proving his point and bringing about a sardonic smirk. Master tilted his head back against the wall behind him. “If I remember right, it’s a new moon tonight,” he said around a yawn._

_I perked up at the thought. “Complete darkness,” I said._

_Master looked over. The deep bags under his eyes only added to the menace of his stare. “Exactly.” I froze. He was too tired for an insult. He truly was at the end of his rope._

_You reached forward and took the last cigarette from his fingers. He watched you lift it to your nose, give it a sniff, and drive it into the floor next to you. The emotion drained from Master’s face. It was as if his soul completely left his body. You reached forward to pat his exposed cheek and bring color to it. He snatched your wrist from the air and gave you a hard stare. It would have been a familiar scene, if not for the menace: a beautifully dressed patron on their knees between Master’s legs as they stared in silence. He audibly ground his teeth._

_“Villages like these are never far from larger cities,” he stated. He watched your stare grow wide. “More people.”_

_“Further inland,” I added. “Far away from the fishermen.”_

_“So how do we do it?” you asked. Your voice shook: you were beyond excited, though you would never admit it._

_Master’s lips tilted up in a smirk. He placed a swift kiss against your open palm and stood. You brought your hand down on his boot in frustration at the action. “We wait until the sun sets completely,” he said. He patted the pockets of his coat and ground his teeth again. No more cigarettes. “And then we run,” he finished.”_

Reever was laughing into his elbow, eyes squeezed shut, tears leaking from the corners. “They hated his  **guts**!” he wheezed out. Allen shot the scientist a withering look, which only made the man laugh harder. “Oh man, they absolutely  **despised** him!”

“Why is that funny?” Lenalee asked. Allen made a variety of rude sounds as he scrambled to sit up.

“If you say anything, Reever, you’ll ruin the story completely!” he shouted. Reever’s laughs disappeared into silent, breathless cackles. Lavi’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. His mind scrambled to piece things together. His thoughts were scattered when Reever’s laughs regained sound and filled the lab.

Allen groaned and buried his cheek against his arm. “Should I just continue the story?” Lenalee pushed herself across the floor until she was looking up at Allen, nodding vigorously. Lavi collapsed into a frustrated pile next to her. They all struggled to ignore Reever.

_“We reached the next town in the early morning. We had chosen to leave behind most of the clothing we had scavenged from the village, save for a shirt, a set of pants, and the dress you were already wearing. They were wrapped haphazardly in a makeshift bag made of a sheet I had found with the clothes. You were heavily limping, but not complaining. Master looked you over as we broke out of a quiet street and into the already bustling main avenue._

_“We can find an inn,” he said softly. You looked up when he spoke, smothering a yawn behind your hand. “Get you cleaned up. Decide what we do from there.”_

_“We can’t take them back to the village!” I shouted. Master glared at me. My voice had been too loud. I ducked my head and tightened my grip on the luggage I carried. “The fishermen might still be waiting in that harbor, if they didn’t see us leave,” I finished quietly. A merchant eyed you as we passed his stall._

_“My dear, a moment, please!” he called after you. “You look like you could use another dress. Mayhap, your husband would oblige?” You stopped as he spoke to you, at a loss for words, but didn’t correct what he said. He mistook you for a human woman by your dress. It was smarter not to say otherwise._

_Master had also stopped at the word ‘husband’. A coy smile turned up his lips. One would mistake it for kindness when, in reality, it was smug. He slipped a hand low across your back as he stepped next to you. His gloved fingers were already twirling a gold button between them: one of his own, stolen from a jacket in his suitcase that was already almost bare of them. He held it up for the merchant to see before he tossed it towards the man. Master then patted your back and leaned towards your ear. “Pick a few things you won’t mind wearing. They’re not extravagant, but they’ll hold up to travel,” he murmured._

_You stepped up to the stand when Master applied pressure to your back. The merchant happily chatted with you, showing you a variety of dresses in heavy fabrics and dark colors. You opted for a blue one, a green one, and a pair of dark brown pants that were buried between linen shirts. You grabbed one of those as well. The merchant backed up into his shop and disappeared within the shadows of the doorway. Cross took the time to step between you and the stand. You didn’t miss his free fingers snatch another shirt and pant from the pile before he ushered you and me away. He shoved those and the clothes you had grabbed towards me to prevent anyone from being suspicious. We continued walking._

_It didn’t take us long to find an Inn. Actually, the town was full of them. It had to be, given the size; it had taken us until nightfall to reach the inner parts of the town when we had reached its outskirts in the early morning. Master jumped up the steps and swept inside with the quiet command for you and me to stay outside. You played with the strands of your hair. Your fingers seemed longer than a normal human’s hands, with a slight sheen where the sides of your fingers touched each other. I stared at them. You noticed and smiled and held them out to me. I set everything down next to my feet and took them._

_There were ridges where the sheens were, thin ones that traveled the valley of your fingers and traveled from side to side. The only places that didn’t have ridges were the tips of your fingers. “What are these?” I asked. You wiggled your fingers, the pads touching my nose. I scrunched my face._

_“Fins,” you answered, “I suppose a better word for it would be webbing.” I stared at your hands as you splayed your fingers. I poked the space between them hesitantly. There was nothing there. “They are there when I’m wet,” you commented._

_I wasn’t able to say anything more. Master stepped out, waving a key in the air. He motioned around the building. You helped me gather the suitcases and followed after him. It was quiet as we herded into the room. There were two beds, a small table, and a door leading to a bathroom. I had half a mind to ask how much this room would cost but kept quiet. Master heaved a sigh. “You should wash up,” he said to you. He looked down at your bare feet; they were dry and cracked. I couldn’t imagine how much they hurt when we were still in the village. I couldn’t beginning to imagine how much they hurt now. You pushed open the door and stared at the tub inside in awe._

_Master turned to me and held the key out. “The two of you stay here,” he said quietly. He glanced back at your back in the bathroom. You had already shed the dress, opting for the comfort of nudity than the rules of being proper. His stare lingered longer than necessary. I grabbed the key. He yanked me close and knelt down. “Do **not**  leave this room,” he whispered._

_“Where are you going?” I asked. He stood to his full height and shed his outer coat. Beneath was another coat, this one thinner and black, with the dusty sleeves of the shirt underneath exposed. A rosary hung from his neck. I pressed my lips together to keep from making a comment._

_“To find out where we are,” he answered. He tossed his hat on the table as well. “And get a drink,” he added. The annoyances of the past few weeks had caught up with him. He left the room quickly and shut the door too harshly. You looked back into the room._

_“Allen?” you called. I looked over, a blush heating my cheeks. If you were going to choose nudity behind closed doors than I had to get used to it. I set everything down next to one bed. “How does this work?” You crouched next to the tub and stared over the lip into the bowl._

_“Suppose you don’t have these in the ocean, huh?” I asked. I placed the stopper and turned on the tap. You jumped at the sudden rush of water._

_“No,” you answered. “There’s many things I’ve seen that we don’t have.”_

_I watched you take in the sight of the water. “I’m sorry,” I apologized._

_You looked up. In the safety and warmth of the room, you were finally able to relax. The circles under your bloodshot eyes deepened as you teared up. Your shoulders slumped. You gripped the side of the tub as it filled. “Will I ever be able to go home?” you asked._

_I slid a hand into the water to test the temperature. I didn’t know how to answer because I didn’t know; there were too many things that had happened, not to mention the whole reason I was traveling with Master in the first place. He insisted that we couldn’t stay in one place too long. We’d been on the coast far longer than necessary. Instead, I looked up and smiled. “Can you tell me about home?”_

_You met my gaze. Tears rolled down your cheeks. You nodded.”_

“That was Denmark, right?” Allen glanced up at Reever. The scientist was staring blankly ahead at the towers of boxes with an unlit cigarette between his lips. “I remember that letter,” he said, “From Cross. It was postmarked Denmark, to Komui. He was complaining about finding a mermaid. Komui had me read it to make sure it was really Cross and to see if he’d lost it or something.” Reever chuckled at the memory.

“I didn’t know he sent a letter,” Allen said.

Lavi rolled over onto his stomach. “I’ve seen it.”

“How the hell have you seen it?” Reever grunted.

Lavi smirked and shrugged, an indicator that he wasn’t going to say. “But it matches up with all those papers he wrote while he was a scientist here. It was legit.”

Allen frowned. “I didn’t know he’d sent a letter,” he repeated. Lenalee rubbed his back.


	4. The Fourth Tale

Silence fell amongst everyone. Reever patted his pockets and retrieved a lighter. Lenalee scrunched her nose. He grinned and blew a lazy stream of smoke. “So. A letter you didn’t know about and a mermaid that shouldn’t have existed, all during the time that Cross was running away from the Order,” he mused.

Allen made a disgruntled sound. He was still miffed about learning about the letter. Cross had already been keeping secrets from him and now this? Allen rolled onto his back and stretched his arms over his head.

“I see everyone’s taking a break, huh?” All eyes turned towards the door. Johnny stood there, still bandaged and worse for wear, but steady on his feet. He tried to smile at everyone. Reever stood and offered the chair he occupied to him. Johnny wandered over. “What are we talking about?” he asked as he sat down. Reever hopped onto the desk space next to him.

“You remember that letter Komui passed around a few years ago? The one from Cross?” Reever asked. Lenalee, Allen, and Lavi climbed to their feet to search for new places to perch. The pieces of the shattered statue still sat on the floor.

Johnny nodded. “Komui was thinking that Cross had found his way into an opium den when he wrote it,” he answered.

“No, we wouldn’t reach any opium den for almost a year and a half,” Allen commented. He perched on the same desk as Reever, crossed his feet under him. Lenalee leaned back against another while Lavi found comfort on a sturdy box.

Johnny smiled faintly. “I remember it, though. There was a picture, wasn’t there? In the letter to Komui?”

Reever scratched his chin. “Maybe,” he hummed. Allen squinted at the two of them.

“How come I haven’t heard anything about this?” he asked. Reever shot him a grin, but didn’t answer him. “Do you want me to continue the story or not?” he asked, annoyed. Johnny nodded.

_“We were in Denmark. Master swore up a storm when he found out, came back stomping. He drank at the hotel that night, in the room. You had gotten dressed, choosing one of the longer shirts Master had bought you and nothing else._

_“I don’t like how restraining clothing is,” you had protested. Master must have made a comment, as you glared at him. He only smirked, and drank straight from the bottle in front of him. You sat on one of the beds, hugging your knees, staring out the window in the middle of the wall. I sat on the floor in front of you, practicing my skills with my cards. I kept staring at you. Your legs had an odd color to them, almost a blue or green tint that shimmered right beneath the skin. It made your legs look cold. The same colors were on your fingers, where the sheen was. I wanted to ask about it. Master beat me to it with a question of his own._

_“What do we need to do if we can’t get you home?” he asked. You looked up. He looked frustrated, which was strange, as he stared in to the bottle in his hands. A burp bubbled passed his lips. You wrinkled your nose. He rolled his eyes. “Accommodations. What will we need to do?” he asked again. You stretched your legs out, watching as your toes brushed the floor._

_“I’m not sure,” you answered quietly._

_The annoyance carved deep lines in Master’s face. “What do you mean ‘you’re not sure’?” he grunted. He pushed the bottle across the table and stood._

_You looked up at him. You were tired. “I mean that I’m not sure,” you responded. “I’ve only heard tales of my people coming on land. I don’t know anyone who has actually done so.” Your voice was soft, wistful, as you looked out the window again._

_Master hesitated, then sighed and sat heavily on the bed across from you. He stared at the cards in front of me. He was careful as he pulled his mask and glasses off and tossed them on the bed next to him, covering his face with a groan. He fell back against the mattress. “I didn’t ask for this shit,” he grumbled into his hands. He swore, in French, I think, and you snapped your head towards him._

_“I know that name,” you said. Master looked up, squinted at you from across the room. “How do you know that name?”_

_“How do **you**?” he asked. He sat up and frowned.”_

Allen hesitated. He rubbed his thumb over the darkened skin of his Innocence. Lenalee watched him curiously. “What is it?” she asked.

“They talked about the Fourteenth,” he whispered. All eyes swiveled to him. Lavi sat up straighter. “I didn’t know what they were talking about. Just…maybe someone they somehow both knew. But they were talking about him, now that I think about it.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Johnny pointed out.

Allen gave him a small smile and nodded. “You’re right,” he said. He tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. “I couldn’t have.”

_“You two stared at each other in silence. You broke it first, saying, “You’re too young to know that name.”_

_Master snorted and stood, stepping around me as he moved towards your bed. “No. You’re far too young,” he countered. He sat heavily next to you._

_“You have no idea how old I am,” you said. Master tilted his head, very obviously amused._

_“And you have no idea how old **I**  am,” he replied. You crossed your arms and stared. “So. How do you know that name?” he asked._

_“I heard it,” you answered._

_“Where.”_

_“Around,” you snapped. You glared at him. “From stories from the surface that passed along through our people. Why is that strange?” you asked him. Master stared at you. “He was a man who came to the shore often, decades ago. He’d sing and compose some strange song and then one day he was **gone**. A mysterious prince, we called him.” You pulled your knees to your chest and hugged them. You stared out the window. “That’s how our stories started, with a reason to go to the surface and a dream of staying there,” you whispered._

_The anger and annoyance faded from Master’s face. He leaned back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. There wasn’t another word about the man or the name. He glanced over at you. “What do we do if we can’t get you to the sea?” he asked again._

_Your hands ghosted over your legs. “Any water is fine,” you answered. You nodded your head to the bathroom. “That’s worked so far. It won’t change unless I’m submerged. The scales will appear in heavy rain but…” You shook your head. I put two and two together. Your tail wouldn’t appear in the rain. You heaved a heavy sigh._

_Master dropped a hand on your head and pulled you close, pressing a loud kiss against your scalp. You balked at the motion. “Would you stop that?” you asked as you pulled away. He smirked at you and stood, stepping over me to collapse onto the opposite bed._

_“Why would I stop smothering such an attractive creature with affection?” he said with a sigh. Timcanpy fluttered over to him. He was small, the size of a toddler’s ball, and Master gently patted the cross in the middle of Tim’s face. “I should see if we can find a patron in this town,” he said, “Someone who can grant us some kind of leeway while we figure out our bearings.”_

_“You mean find a woman to swindle?” I asked. He gave me a ugly look._

_You glanced up, but said nothing. Master watched you, studying your expression. Then, he collected his coat. “Be careful until I return,” he stated._

_We both watched him leave. I sighed, turned to you. You met my gaze. “There was a pub down the road,” I said, “I could get us something to eat. I still have some money from the last poker game I won. We can eat and stay here for the night.”_

_You smiled. “That sound nice, Allen.” You tucked your legs beneath you and your smile grew. “Do that, and I’ll tell you more stories from home, okay?”_

_I smiled and nodded. “Okay.”_

The memory left Allen smiling. His eyes watered just a bit. He missed the time he had spent with you. Lenalee leaned over in her seat, staring at him, frowning just a bit. “Allen?” she called.

“Hm?” He looked up. She smiled at him.


End file.
